One of the most celebrated of all British floras is Sowerby’s English botany. This periodical publication, issued
in 267 numbers, and published in thirty-six volumes between 1790 and 1814, contains 2,592 beautifully coloured illustrations of plants most of which are
drawn and engraved by James Sowerby. The plates are accompanied by descriptive letterpress written by the eminent botanist James Edward Smith, … (Henrey II p.
141). James Sowerby, who was the first of several members of this family who became noted as authors and illustrators of books on natural history, lived from
1757-1822. He studied painting at the Royal Academy, and soon turned to botanical illustration. His first work was for William Curtis’s Flora
londinensis and his Botanical magazine.
* Pritzel 8789; Dunthorne 291; Blunt pp. 190-192; Nissen BBI 2225; Great flower books p. 76; Hunt 717; Henrey 1366; Stafleu & Cowan 12.221.